White Rock Pier (w/ Lifer) and Blackie Spit - Feb5

[Randy]

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and getting ready for the football game. I took a trip to the White Rock Pier and then Blackie Spit this morning.

My purpose for going to White Rock pier was to try to find some long-tailed ducks, which I have never seen before. It did not disappoint. There were about 15-20, and at times they were close enough to the pier for great views and pictures:






Had a fly-by of a single Brant but couldn't get a photo. Some other species that allowed good photos included:

Pelagic cormorant:



Common loon:


Surf scoter:


Here's my complete list from White Rock:

Brant 1
Greater Scaup 3
Harlequin Duck 2
Surf Scoter 20
White-winged Scoter 20
Long-tailed Duck 20
Bufflehead 5
Ruddy Duck 1
Common Loon 4
Horned Grebe 2
Pelagic Cormorant 2
Glaucous-winged Gull 30
Rock Pigeon 30
Northwestern Crow 20

Blackie Spit wasn't overly busy with bird activity and there were no remarkable findings. A single female red-breasted merganser was a moderately interesting find. I found 2 of the godwits but was unable to locate the long-billed curlew today. I saw 28 species here:

Gadwall 3
Eurasian Wigeon 2
American Wigeon 200
Mallard 40
Northern Pintail 40
Green-winged Teal 100
Bufflehead 3
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Horned Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 10
Bald Eagle 6
Northern Harrier 1
Marbled Godwit 2 2 seen wading
Ring-billed Gull 30
Glaucous-winged Gull 30
Rock Pigeon 10
Northern Flicker 2
Northwestern Crow 20
Black-capped Chickadee 2
American Robin 2
European Starling 10
Spotted Towhee 1
Song Sparrow 8
Dark-eyed Junco 10
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Purple Finch 6
House Sparrow 1

Sorry about the long post!

Randy - Langley

[Chris]

Nice report and pictures Randy. Love the 2nd shot of the Long-tailed Ducks. Beautiful birds. I have only seen them once at the pier and they were a good distance away. Nice to see that they were close in.

[davidandkaren]

Football? - We were at Pittt Lake and the UBC Research forest on Saturday - saw a Kestrel but I feel like I've completely 'birded out' that place.

On Sunday White Rock was on our short list of places to go - in the end we did Boundary Bay and Iona instead. Got some good (not great) photos of a Short Eared Owl at Boundary Bay - Iona though was a total dud.

Thanks for letting us see what we missed!

[martin]

Fantastic list, great shots on the long tails, will have to try that area agin soon.Thanks for the information.